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Americas Newsroom

belling ham saw 220 overdoses resulting in 2 1/2 emergency calls per day. now city officials are making a u turn. let's bring in jason rantz. tell us more. what's going on? >> what's going on is, as you pointed out. there has been a significant push towards drug decriminalization which is effectively legalization and how it is working. as a result of turning away from what has been going out on the streets and choosing not to stigmatize drug users, we've seen an increase in addiction, an increase not just in overdose calls but fatal overdoses driven in large part by fentanyl and meth it becomes untenable. so bellingham said we can no longer do this. they decided to criminalize the public use of drugs.

Overdoses , Saw , In-bellingham , City-officials , Emergency-calls , 220 , 2-1 , Push , Jason-rantz , Legalization , Drug-decriminalization , What-s-going-on

Americas Newsroom

fentanyl and meth at the same time. this is happening all across the city. unlike in bellingham, in the city of seattle the council here decided to go all in and not pursue any law that criminalizes public use. they say they won't seek treatment if you do this. we have all the programs. no one is going into them because we aren't coerceing them to go into them because they know there are no consequences. when officers can go around. i have an officer saying could you please put away your crack pipe. that officers can't do anything in these scenarios. no arrests are allowed. >> dana: i mentioned that out of these 223 overdoses -- i would say it's a relatively small community, two were children. were those accidents? >> so three of them, actually now have been children unfortunately. one was an accident. it looks like the parents had drugs around or were dealers. that was the allegation.

Fentanyl , City , Meth , In-bellingham , Council , Law , City-of-seattle , One , Officers , Treatment , Programs , Consequences

Americas Newsroom

two other cases one was a homeless individual and another person was deciding to just take it. we've seen so many stories of kids who don't even realize what they are doing is taking fentanyl. it is something else that's laced with fentanyl and they end up suffering a fatal overdose. >> dana: one last quick question. do you think the u turn the community wants to make have an immediate effect? >> not an immediate effect. when you have allowed things to get this bad over the course of three years it will take some time before we start to see some results especially given -- it is not just bellingham. we have police departments understaffed so they can only do so much. hopefully we'll start seeing a little positive turn. definitely not in the short term. >> dana: thank you. it's devastating for that community. glad you are there to report on it. you have to wonder if that type of reaction, ann milligram, the head of the dea.

Fentanyl , Doing , Kids-who-don-t , Stories , Individual , Cases , Person , Something-else , Two , One , Dana-perino , Things

Erin Burnett OutFront-20130308-04:34:00

girl? >> yes. at 6 or 7, she used to start -- she somehow got in her mind that she wanted to grow up and study siberian snow tigers in siberia. and she would tell that to everybody, and we thought it was just a passing fancy. and she never played with dolls or anything like other little girls. she was really a tomboy and she stuck with that. that idea of tigers, tigers. all her artwork and pictures in her room were about tigers. and when she went to elementary school, in the local elementary school, her mother and i would go to parent/teacher conferences and she would -- the teachers would say, you know, your daughter has a lot of artistic talent, but the problem is, she only does the same subject, over and over again. tigers. and she just kept that obsession with tigers and then later, big cats, all the way through high school, through college. what really confirmed that it wasn't going to change is when she was in college at the western washington university in

Everybody , Girl , Yes , Mind , Study-siberian-snow-tigers , Siberia , Passing-fancy , 6 , 7 , Tigers , Anything , Idea

Erin Burnett OutFront-20130308-04:35:00

bellingham, she was up on a ski lift one day at mt. baker, where she was a ski instructor on weekends for a part-time job, and a little boy was sitting in the chair lift with her, and that little boy, she was trying to make conversation with him, asking him what his favorite animal was, and he said, tigers, like my grandparents have. well, his grandparents lived right there in bellingham, and she thought, how could they have tigers and lions, and she found out they had exotic pets on their property on the outskirts of town, so she went out there and spent the next three years helping to take care of them and maintaining them and watching them when the people were gone. so that's where she really got her training with lions and tigers and she just loved it. she was so happy. we'd go up there, but we'd all cringe when we'd watch her go into the cages with those big tigers and lions. but she was fearless, never the slightest bit afraid. and was very well trained on how to handle tigers and lions. >> were you ever afraid during all those years, and say, look, i don't want you to do this. i'm your father and i love you and i feel -- i don't want you to do it? >> no, i never told her i didn't

Tigers , Job , Grandparents , Conversation , Ski-instructor , Animal , Baker , Ski-lift , Chair-lift , Little-boy , Boy , One

Erin Burnett OutFront-20130308-04:37:00

when i was down there with her on january 3rd, we drove down from seattle together on january 1st and 2nd of this year and she gave me a tour of the place, and she gave me -- we went by the cage of the lion cous cous that killed her, and the tiger there and the other animals. and she said, those are the only two cages i can't go in and work with them directly. they don't let anybody in their cage except the owner. and she was a little disappointed with that, because she had hoped to get in and work with the tiger and the lion like she had in her bellingham job. but she was, you know, accepting of that, and she was able to play with cheetahs and the lynxes and the other animals. i couldn't understand yesterday how she was in that cage with that lion. the only thing that i could guess is, they would clean the cages of all the animals, every day, of manure, the lions and the tigers, they would be put off in a side enclosure when they did that. the only thing i can think of is, it got out of the side

Place , Cage , Tour , Tiger , Co-us , January-1st , Seattle , January-3rd , 2nd , 3 , 1 , 2

Anderson Cooper 360-20130308-06:09:00

and really dedicated herself, you know, her passion for these animals then transcending into work that could be done to save them and make sure we can still have wildlife in wild areas. >> paul, i understand you said that your daughter told you she wasn't allowed in the lion cage. have you been given any information as to what happened yesterday or why she was in there yesterday? >> no, not yet. i just know she gave me a tour of the place on january 3rd after we drove down from seattle. she and i drove down together. that was the last time i saw her. and she gave me a tour of the place before i flew back to seattle. and when she gave me the guided tour path that you take when you go through all of the animal cages and enclosures there. when we go by the lion and tiger cage, she said these are the only cages we're not allowed to go in, the lion cage and the tiger cage. she was disappointed because she had done that for so long in bellingham. she said only the owner is

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Anderson Cooper 360-20130308-06:07:00

old, she loved big cats. >> yes, about 7 years old, she just developed a fixation on tigers, especially tigers. and big cats in general. she used to tell everybody she was going to grow up and study siberian snow tigers in siberia. and then when she got older, in elementary school, every time we would go and see the parent/teacher conference, they would say, you know, she's a great artist. she's got some talent, but she draws the same subject over and over again, tigers. then when she went to college, she was a ski instructor for her part-time job on the weekends up at western washington university in bellingham. and one day, she had a little boy sitting next to her in the ski lift chair when it was temporarily stopped and she made conversation with him and asked his favorite animal, and he said, tigers like my grandparents had. she tracked them down and they had three tigers and a lion just outside of city limits, and she

Tigers , Everybody , Yes , Big-cats , Fixation-on-tigers , Big-cats-in-general , 7 , Study-siberian-snow-tigers , Parent , Teacher-conference , Elementary-school , Siberia

Anderson Cooper 360-20130308-01:07:00

her mother and i agree we had never seen her happier since the two months she got there. >> i heard since she was 7 years old, she loved big cats. >> yes, about 7 years old, she just developed a fixation on tigers, especially tigers. and big cats in general. she used to tell everybody she was going to grow up and study siberian snow tigers in siberia. and then when she got older, in elementary school, every time we would go and see the parent/teacher conference, they would say, you know, she's a great artist. she's got some talent, but she draws the same subject over and over again, tigers. then when she went to college, she was a ski instructor for her part-time job on the weekends up at western washington university in bellingham. and one day, she had a little boy sitting next to her in the ski lift chair when it was temporarily stopped and she made conversation with him and asked his favorite animal, and he said, tigers like my

Tigers , Happier , Big-cats , Fixation-on-tigers , Mother , Yes , Two , 7 , Everybody , Study-siberian-snow-tigers , Teacher-conference , Parent

Anderson Cooper 360-20130308-01:10:00

tiger cage. she was disappointed because she had done that for so long in bellingham. she said only the owner is allowed to go in the cage. i was so shocked when i heard she was killed by the lion inside the lion cage because i couldn't figure out why she was in there. >> did he ever talk about this lion in particular, cous cous? >> yeah, she -- she absolutely adored cous cous and all of the animals that were there. you know, it was a lion that has been with the facility that they had had for many years. had even taken it on tv. so she spoke very highly of that lion. >> paul, does this change the way you view these animals? >> no. not at all. in fact, it makes me view them with more love and interest than ever before because i will always think of her now whenever i see a lion or a tiger or a big

Cage , Lion , Owner , Tiger-cage , Figure , In-bellingham , The-african-lion , Al-l , Co-us , Animals , Particular , Wasn-ta-situation